Final Exam

The final exam consists of one of the six questions below. On the day of the final exam I will bring a fair six-sided die and ask a volunteer from the class to roll it to determine which question students will be required to answer.

Students also have the option of taking the final at one of two alternate times: Wednesday, May 9, 6:30PM - 9:15PM, Ballston Room 205, or Thursday, May 10, noon, Ballston Room 204. There is no need to register for one of the alternate times in advance. However, students who begin the exam at any of the times (the scheduled time or one of the alternates) must finish the exam at that sitting (that is, you can’t show up, see which number gets rolled, and then decide you want to take it at a different time).

The final exam will be written in class without books, notes, computers, phones, audio devices, or other aids. Students found violating the Marymount principles of Academic Integrity will fail the course and be formally charged through the University’s Academic Integrity process.

Your answer must be well-organized, with a clearly-specified thesis statement and appropriate logic and evidence, and must refer to course readings where appropriate.

True or false?

The bitter domestic political legacy of the Vietnam War hampered the ability of American leaders to effectively pursue American security interests.

The constraints that democratic checks and balances impose on the President’s ability to conduct foreign policy undermine America’s commitments to protect allies and to deter rivals.

Strategic consensus within the U.S. after World War Two allowed the United States to build effective institutions of global governance, whereas internal disagreements about national goals prevented effective governance after the end of the Cold War.

Since the end of the Cold War, there has been a greater tendency for politics not to “stop at the water’s edge.”

American foreign policy is generally driven by pragmatic calculations of the national interest; idealistic impulses have only rarely played a substantial role in shaping policy.

The United States today is responding to China’s rise very differently than it once did to the Soviet Union’s rise after World War Two.